Meat and cheese slicers having a sharpened disk blade are commonly used in restaurant and grocery businesses, among others. Because the blades of these slicers are extremely sharp, it is conventional practice in the industry to construct the slicer with a stationary blade guard which shields the portions of the blade downstream from the cutting operation to prevent the user from coming into contact with the blade during operation. Fat and food debris tends to build up on the blade and blade guard, particularly, in the space between the blade guard and the blade and on the rear of the blade. It is difficult to clean this build-up in many slicers because the blade guard cannot be removed from the slicer without substantial disassembly and with the guard in place there is only a limited space for the operator to clean the blade.
To overcome the difficulty in cleaning the blade presented by the blade guard, slicers have employed removable blade guards or temporary blade covers have been designed to cover the blade once its guard was removed. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,573,860 to Meeker, et al. teaches a knife guard for slicing machines. This guard is secured to the apparatus by means of pins which lock the guard in place around the blade. The guard must then be removed to clean the blade.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,962,581 to Rutigliano teaches a blade sheath for use in cleaning a meat slicer blade. The sheath is circular and has two ends connected by a bail and clip to form a ring which surrounds the edge of the blade. The sheath is open to cover the circumference of the blade edge of the slicer and then locked into position by the bail and clip.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,188,011 to Somal et al. discloses a temporary cover for the slicing knife of a slicing machine. The cover is substantially circular and includes a flange which encircles the knife edge when the cover is in place. The cover also includes a retention pin and a spring-loaded retractable plunger which removably retains the cover on the slicing knife. This cover is designed to prevent the person cleaning the slicer blade from coming into contact with the blade edge. However, the blade guard which covers the blade during use must first be removed before the temporary cover can be applied.